BP Photoshopped Command Center Pictures

These pictures from BP’s command center alledgedly showing BP employee’s hard at work on the oil disaster are apparently PHOTOSHOPPED.

Americablog was the first to report on this and caught the deception, which, for any mediocre photoshop user isn’t hard to see given the poor job BP did. For the most part, it seems as though images of the current tragedy were cut and pasted on top of blank screens:

And as if all that weren’t bad enough, the file’s metadata suggests the original shot was taken way back 2001:

Scott Dean, a spokesman for BP, said that there was nothing sinister in the photo alteration and provided the original unaltered version. He said that a photographer working for the company had inserted the three images in spots where the video screens were blank.

The idea that a “professional” could have done such a sloppy job is laughable on its face. And BP’s posting of what they say is the undoctored photo does nothing to explain the metadata.

More to the point though: really, BP? You don’t have an active enough crisis command center as it is? I know public relations are the most important thing you’ve got to worry about right now, but honestly this is pathetic. [Americablog via Geekosystem]